Education, health and care (EHC) plans

An Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment is for children and young people who may need special educational provision to be arranged by the Local Authority (Devon County Council). It is a joint assessment from professionals who are or who may need to be involved with an individual to provide advice about specific provision to meet their needs. An EHC needs assessment may result in an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). When it does not, the information gathered can be used to inform the SEN support which the school, college or setting provides. Children and young people can have an EHC Plan between the ages of 0 and 25 whilst in education or training. EHC Plans are not required or issued to access Higher Education (University), but they can be used to inform the other support available at university. When a young person is aged 16 or over the local authority expect to work directly with the young person; this of course can include their family.

“The EHC needs assessment should not normally be the first step in the process, rather it should follow on from planning already undertaken with parents and young people in conjunction with an early years provider, school, post-16 institution or other provider.” (SEND Code of Practice 9.3)

How do I request an assessment?

If you think your child has special educational needs or disabilities and needs additional support speak to their teacher or the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO). They can talk to you about beginning the support, which will set out areas of need and the targeted support required to meet these and achieve the best outcomes.

If your child fails to make good progress in their mainstream school, even with additional support, a statutory assessment may be necessary.

It is important to work with children, young people and parent/carers as partners in the EHC needs assessment process. Usually, when a young person and/or their parent/carers want to request an EHC needs assessment this is done in partnership with the school, college or setting in discussion with the SENCO. A young person and/or their parents/carers and other people who know the child or young person can request an EHC needs assessment independently.

• You can write a letter or complete a ‘Request for an Education Health and Care Needs Assessment’ form • Add relevant, up to date evidence as an appendix. • Send your request by post to SEN 0-25 Team, Room L102, County Hall, Topsham Road, Exeter, EX2 4QD or by email to specialeducation0-25-mailbox@devon.gov.uk

The SEN 0-25 Team may ask you to complete a form. You don’t have to complete the form to request an assessment. The form makes it easier to get the information we need. If you can’t complete a section of the form, it’s ok – just complete the sections that you can do. We may still ask you for a lot of the information on the form to inform our decision-making. If you need help with this, you can contact Devon Information, Advice and Support Service for SEND (DIAS) – 01392 383080.

What about my views?

Your views are a really important part of the process. You can send in your views and your child’s views in lots of different ways. You can send us your views as a parent carer using the All about my child form. Young people can send in their views using the This is Me form. You don’t have to use these forms, but they give you some good ideas for things to think about.

What happens next?

After a request is made, we normally have 6 weeks to decide whether or not to carry out an EHC needs assessment.

If we agree to carry out an EHC needs assessment we will gather evidence and information from the people who work closely with your child. We will also get your views and the views of your child.

If the EHC needs assessment results in an EHC plan then this will be produced within 16 weeks of the initial request. To create a plan, professionals from education, health and care will work with the parents/carers and the child to consider what outcomes are desired and what is needed to achieve them. A draft copy of the plan will be sent to you and your to check and suggest changes. You will have 15 days in which to request changes.

The school or setting named on the EHC plan will also be informed and also has 15 days to respond.

The whole process from the EHC needs assessment request to agreement of an EHC plan should normally take no more than 20 weeks.

Plans have the same protection in law as the previous Statements of SEN. If your child has one of these plans you will also have the right to ask for a personal budget for their support.

If your request for an assessment is refused

If after a needs assessment request we decide not to complete a needs assessment, we must inform you within 6 weeks of the request.

If we decide, following a needs assessment, not to issue an EHC plan, we must inform you within 16 weeks of the request for an assessment.

If you are not happy with either of these decisions then you will have 2 months to make an appeal to a tribunal. See Disagreeing with a decision for more information.

Children without an EHC plan will typically be educated in a mainstream nursery, school or college. The educational setting may have funding allocated to them in order to support children and young people with SEND.

Most disagreements about special educational provision can be sorted out by talking with the education setting, professionals who work with the child or the Local Authority. If you need help with this you can contact the Devon Information, Advice & Support for SEND service which offers impartial information and advice to parents/carers and young people.

It can sometimes be difficult to reach agreement so local authorities must make arrangements for both disagreement resolution and mediation services. These services are available to children with SEND and their parents or carers. The services are free and confidential and are independent of the Local Authority and Clinical Commissioning Group.

Disagreement resolution

Disagreement resolution aims to resolve disagreements in a quick and informal way, using a trained and independent mediator to help find a solution. The use of this service is voluntary and has to be agreed by everyone involved. This service is available to help resolve disagreements about:

how the early years setting, school, college or Local Authority is carrying out its education, health and care duties for children and young people with special educational needs. This can include any of the SEN duties – not just those concerning EHC needs assessments or EHC plans

the provision that the early years setting, school, or college is making. This applies to children and young people with any kind of SEN, not just those going through an EHC needs assessment or with an EHC plan

the health or social care provision during an EHC needs assessment, while EHC plans are being drawn up or reviewed, while awaiting an appeal or when children or young people are being reassessed. In these cases the disagreement will be with the Local Authority or Clinical Commissioning Group, rather than the early years setting, school, or college.

Mediation

Mediation is a voluntary process for parents/carers and young people, which can be used if agreement cannot be reached about matters related to EHC plans. It is provided by a trained and accredited mediator who is independent of the local authority and Clinical Commissioning Group.

Mediation is available if there is a disagreement about the Local Authority’s decision:

not to carry out an EHC needs assessment or re-assessment

not to draw up an EHC plan after an EHC needs assessment has been done

not to amend an EHC plan after an annual review or re-assessment

to cease to maintain an EHC plan.

Mediation must also be available if parents/carers or young people disagree with:

the parts of the EHC plan that describe the child or young person’s special educational needs

the special educational provision set out in the EHC plan

the health and social care elements of an EHC plan.

A request for mediation must be made within 2 months of the date of the decision notice by the Local Authority.

If you decide to go to mediation, Global Mediation will make all the arrangements for you. The mediation will take place within 30 days and will be at a time and place that is convenient to you.

Appeal to the Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Tribunal

Parents or carers and young people can register an appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Tribunal about concerns relating to SEND provision and decisions about EHC plans. This is an independent first-tier tribunal who hear and decide parents’/carers’ or young peoples’ appeals against the decisions of the local authority in relation to special educational needs.

To register an appeal you must first contact an independent mediation adviser and obtain a certificate to show that you have done so. The mediation adviser will provide you with information, explain what is involved and answer any questions you may have about mediation.

Once you have contacted the mediation adviser you can choose whether you wish to go to mediation or not. You will need a certificate from the mediation adviser before you can register your appeal with the SEND Tribunal. This will be issued within 3 days of you concluding mediation or telling the mediator you do not want to attend mediation.

You do not need to have a certificate from a mediation adviser before you register an appeal with the SEND Tribunal if the appeal is solely about the name of the school, college or other institution named on the EHC plan, the type of school, college or other institution specified in the plan or the fact that no school or other institution is named. In addition you do not need to seek mediation advice if the appeal is solely about the health and social care elements of an EHC plan.

From 3rd April 2018, Devon will be part of a national trial which gives you the opportunity to request recommendations about the health and social care content of the plan alongside education content. You can read more about this in the EHCP Tribunals: Single Route of Redress Guide.

More information about the Tribunal

To discuss or request mediation advice and meditation you can contact global mediation on 0800 064 4488 or email sen@globalmediation.co.uk. This service is free of charge and your conversation is confidential

Making a complaint

In the first instance, you should always try and solve any problems directly with the provider, whether this is a school, social care or health service, or private company. If you don’t feel confident doing this by yourself you can ask the Devon Information Advice & Support for SEND for help and support. If it is not possible to solve the problem in this way you may need to submit an official complaint.

Early Years settings, schools and colleges will have complaints procedure available which should be available on the website or from the office. This will explain what you need to do and what the setting will do once you have made a complaint. The procedure will also tell you how to take your complaint further if necessary.

Devon’s SEN 0-25 team carries out Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments and maintains and reviews EHC plans for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). They use the information from Education, Health and Care professionals to co-ordinate the writing of EHC Plans.

You can contact a member of staff in the SEN 0-25 team by calling 01392 380434 or email specialeducation0-25-mailbox@devon.gov.uk

My child had a statement…

A programme for converting statements to EHC plans, the transfer plan, finished on 31st March 2018.

Information, Advice and Support

Devon Information, Advice & Support for SEND (DIAS) can provide support to parents, carers, children and young people during the EHCP process. For some elements of support, such as meetings, gathering views and checking a draft EHC plan, it is recommended that you contact the service at the earliest opportunity to make sure you get the support you need within the deadline you may have been given.

Reviewing EHC plans

EHC plans must be reviewed annually at a meeting where you, your child and the professionals who work with them can discuss the year and plan for the future. At transition times, for example, when your child is about to change school, it will be important to invite additional personnel to these meetings, for example, the SENCo from the next school.

At an annual review there are several options for the recommendation that might be made after discussions:

continue with the EHC plan

continue with the EHC plan with some amendments to meet current needs

cease to maintain the EHC plan. If those present at the review meeting feel that an EHC plan is no longer needed and the outcomes have been met, it can be ceased.

Recommendations made at the annual review will be sent to the Local Authority who will make a decision on the outcome of the review. We will notify you and your child of the decision within four weeks of the review meeting. For information about what to do if you don’t agree with a decision made at a review meeting see Disagreeing with a decision or contact the Devon Information, Advice & Support for SEND Service.

If we are considering changing the EHC plan, we will send a draft copy with changes to you and your child and you will have 15 days in which to register any comments. If after this, we decide not to make changes to the EHC plan then we have 8 weeks to inform the people concerned.

These documents are here to help SENDCos if there are any problems with accessing the portal – all the annual review documents need to be submitted via the portal but we understand that these documents can be helpful. We are considering revising the Annual Review template for different phases of education. The 2016 documents have been reviewed against the portal to ensure they still match the fields. Subscribe for updates from this page to be alerted to changes to documents and processes. Please send feedback if you have any difficulties with these documents.

Re-assessment of an EHC plan

We must consider a re-assessment of your child’s EHC plan where we are asked to do so by the responsible commissioning body for that child or young person. This may happen if the provision which was agreed in the EHC plan is no longer available or appropriate. We have 15 days in which to tell you and your child whether re-assessment is necessary. You may disagree with the decision. See Disagreeing with a decision for more information.

All young people in Devon have an entitlement to access education until they are 18. This is the same for all learners with and without SEND. The SEND Code of Practice and Department for Education guidance states that all learners should be able to complete their education by the time they reach 18. This applies to learners with EHC Plans as well.

From year 9 onwards the focus of each EHC Plan must be on preparation for adulthood and what each child/young person wants to achieve in their education. As each learner progresses through their education the EHC plan will be reviewed and updated. When the learner reaches 18 their EHC plan should outline what ceasing the plan should look like, the plan should outline what outcomes the learner needs to complete their education.

Learners with EHC plans can access education between 19-25 if it is identified that they have incomplete outcomes in their EHC plan. Each learners EHC plan should identify what they need to accomplish to complete their education. They should have clear outcomes linked to their aspirations.

Learners without EHC plans can continue to access education between 19-25. Support can be accessed through their FE college for their SEN needs. Any learner can request an assessment of their SEN until the age of 25.